The Book of Sakura
by SpecMode
Summary: When the Master of the Cards vanishes without a trace and the seal is released anew, another must take up the burden as Cardcaptor and recover all that is lost...
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

"_Embrace the Void…"_

Sakura kept a tight grasp on the Star Wand as she bounded through the empty streets, keeping a wary eye to her back. The voice that followed chilled her to the bone, its monotonous droning seemingly devoid of life — much like the being that owned it.

"Kero-chan…" Sakura gasped for breath before continuing, "who IS that?"

The winged lion following alongside turned towards her without slowing. "I don't know! That presence…it's like nothing I've ever felt before!" He frowned harder than he already was. "It just appeared out of nowhere — I didn't even sense it until it was right next to us! And your Cards didn't even have any effect on it!" Casting another nervous glance to the rear, he then turned to look past Sakura to his counterpart. "What do you think, Yue?"

The other Guardian of the Cards already appeared to be deep in thought. "It does not feel like a creation of Clow's — I cannot sense anything like his presence from this being." He looked at Kerberos, a strangely unnerved expression on his face. "However, it radiates a peculiar presence that is quite similar to that of the last Clow Card."

Sakura, despite her terror, asked: "What presence?"

Yue's eyes narrowed. "Nothingness."

"Nothingness…"

Sakura recalled vividly her confrontation with the fifty-third and final Clow Card, which had been sealed away by Clow Reed himself long before she was born. The seal had been broken after her classmate Eriol Hiiragizawa — the reincarnation of Clow — had returned to his native England and his home had been demolished. The unnamed Card – a 'negative' force equal in power to the first fifty-two Clow Cards combined – had devastated Tomoeda, wiping out large portions of the city and sealing away nearly all of Sakura's friends and family, all in the name of reuniting herself with her 'friends', the Clow Cards. It was only with the help of Syaoran Li – and the Card created from Sakura's feelings for him – that she was finally able to seal away the misguided Card and transform it into the Hope.

Without slowing, Sakura allowed her senses to expand, using her innate ability to detect the presence of nearby magic. What she felt sent a shudder through her spine; a presence vaguely similar to the sealed Card, but somehow…_colder_, more empty, infinitely more sinister… and a lot closer than she had thought.

Instinct and reflex were all that saved Sakura from the bolt of black energy the spectre had silently loosed towards her, as she deftly changed course. Kerberos and Yue, also caught off-guard, turned on the being, unleashing a dual barrage of magically-charged crystal shards and powerful flames. Twisting in mid-air, Sakura pulled a Card from her vest.

"_Thunder!"_

The three-pronged attack slammed into the cloaked figure simultaneously, obscuring it momentarily beneath a flash of intense magical light so bright it momentarily blinded Sakura. The light quickly faded, and she blinked a few times to clear her vision. When she looked at where the figure had been standing, she saw nothing there; nor could she sense its presence anywhere nearby. _Could we have finally…?_

"Kero-chan? Yue-san? Did we…is it gone?"

Kerberos cautiously walked over towards where the spectre had been standing, while Yue hovered in place a short distance away, eyes closed in concentration.

"Looks like we got 'im," Kerberos said, with a relieved expression. "Nothing less from our Master, of course. I had perfect faith in you, Sakura!"

Yue, however, did not share Kerberos' optimism. "We should be careful. It may still be somewhere nearby."

His four-legged counterpart, though, was having no part of his pessimistic assessment. "…I _knew_ we were going to win all along! After all, nothing can stand against my incredible power and unrivaled intellect!"

Sakura allowed herself a sigh of relief, though she was still quite troubled by the sense of deadly purpose she had felt from the spectre during their retreat. _It's nothing like I felt from any of the Cards, not even _that_ one…_ She couldn't suppress a shiver at that feeling. _It really felt like it wanted to hurt us. It was trying to…to…!_ She couldn't bring herself to think of _that_ possibility. _At least it's gone, now…_

She turned to the guardians, her companions. "It's getting pretty late…maybe we should go back home."

Kerberos, having returned to his disguise form, hovered over to Sakura's side and let out a yawn. "Yeah, let's go. I could use a nap…and maybe some sweets as a midnight snack…"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Kero-chan, is that all you _ever_ think about? There's more to the world than swee…ah!"

A jarring flash of alarm from her heightened senses was her only warning. Bringing the Star Wand to bear, Sakura spun about…and before she could even complete the movement, she froze, held in place by an irresistible force. Before she had time even to utter a sound, a lance of purest darkness pierced her immobile form, sending waves of icy coldness throughout her body. If there was any pain, she could not perceive it; only an all-emcompassing emptiness, slowly enveloping her. As her sense of the world around her diminished, she could only barely hear the anguished cries of Kerberos and Yue as they tried to rush to her rescue. As her vision faded to nothing and consciousness slipped away, she heard one final voice as oblivion took her…

_The Void welcomes you, my mistress. _

* * *

_ So, now for the story behind the story...essentially, the idea for the Book of Sakura was pulled from the aether during an all-nighter at work a few weeks back (there wasn't much going on at the time); I started writing, came up with a basic story outline, and this was the initial result. It isn't actually as finished as I had originally intended, though I may just leave it as-is as it opens the story more or less adequately._

_As to the timing of its posting...well, I'm actually here at Anime USA at present, and I figured that now is as good a time as any. As per the usual routine: read, review, comment, et al. Constructive criticism is absolutely welcome._


	2. Chapter 1

The afternoon sun shone brightly in the clear, deep blue skies over Seijou High, as a light breeze carried fallen leaves along the sidewalks on the grounds below. On the school track, several students were well into the day's track and field practice. One in particular — a tall, lithe young man with short black hair — braced himself at the starting block as another sprinter did likewise beside him.

The pair held perfectly motionless, waiting…until the instant they heard the _crack_ of the starter's pistol. The two leapt forward nearly in sync, their legs seemingly barely touching down as they sprinted at top speed down the length of the track. For the first two seconds, they held dead even…but slowly, the black-haired youth pulled forward, gaining first inches, then feet over his opponent. Finally, at the finish line, he crossed nearly a full second and a half ahead, with the other sprinter nearly collapsing from the effort as he slowed to a halt. A coach, stopwatch in hand, approached the two as they stretched their legs out beside the track.

"Tanaka-kun, a very impressive showing — you actually cut another quarter-second this time," he said, addressing the victor. "You keep up that kind of improvement, you'll probably break the school record before long. And as for you, Iwada-kun," he turned to the still-wheezing second-place finisher, "you also shaved a tenth of a second yourself. Keep it up!" After a quick glance at his wristwatch, the coach gestured toward the locker room. "Alright, I think you've both worked hard enough for one day. Remember that our first meet is on Friday — don't overexert yourself at practice tomorrow!"

"Yes, Mihara-sensei!"

* * *

_Another quarter-second…that was even better than I was expecting._ Taking a deep breath of the cooling autumn air, Kaoru Tanaka stretched out his arms as he walked home. _Still, not quite there yet…_

Kaoru was a sprinter, and had been since he was seven years old. When he was in junior high in Kobe, he actually _had_ set the school record for the hundred-meter dash; his high school track and field coaches had reacted with something akin to shock when he announced that he would be moving to Tomoeda after his sophomore year. They jokingly pleaded with him to convince his parents to stay, as he was their top sprinter.

_At least it _looks_ nicer out here_, he mused. He too had resisted moving, but in the end, had no choice but to accept. His father, an executive with a major electronics company, had been reassigned as manager of a regional branch office in Tomoeda, and the company had offered to cover the expense of relocating the family. Thankfully, the move had occurred during the summer, so that Kaoru was able to start at Seijou High at the beginning of the new school year.

School had started three weeks ago, and Kaoru was still getting used to the differences from his old school. Seijou High was smaller and more tight-knit, so he tended to see some of the same people in several different classes. He hadn't yet made many friends yet, but at least got along with most of the other students. Masaki Iwada, his running partner, was one of the first to actually approach Kaoru. The two were in the same English, science, and math classes, and shared a number of interests. After track and field practice in the afternoon, Iwada worked part-time for a local auto mechanic, which particularly impressed Kaoru.

_Hmm…I need to look at getting a job of my own, soon…_ Kaoru's train of thought was derailed as something at the corner of his field of vision caught his attention. He turned, trying to figure out what he had seen; some flash of reflected light, perhaps… For several seconds, he gazed in the direction of what he thought he had seen, searching. When his careful gaze found nothing, he turned to walk away — and once again, caught a momentary glimpse of_something_ in the grass beside the sidewalk. This time, he walked over to the spot, kneeling down to look more closely.

_Probably just a piece of broken glass, or a coin, or something. _Kaoru looked about, trying to gauge exactly where the object had been. _It would have been right around…here!_ He spotted what looked like a thin, bunched-up metal chain sitting atop the soil, and carefully picked it up. _What is…this?_, he mentally asked himself, as he looked at the object he held.

It was a sort of pendant, he guessed: a small key with a winged gold star in it, hanging from a neck-chain. And it was…_pink_. He grimaced at the color; _it must be some little girl's charm necklace, or something_. He looked around him, wondering if its owner might be somewhere nearby — there was nobody else around, however. He looked at the pendant again. _I wonder how long it's been sitting there? It's still fairly shiny, so it probably hasn't been there long…_

With little clue as to the owner of the pendant, Kaoru got back to his feet and continued down the sidewalk towards home. _I'll turn this into the elementary school office tomorrow. Maybe the kid who owns it will go there to claim it._ He yawned as he walked, noting that it was getting late: the sun was already starting to set. Then he abruptly came to a halt as he suddenly remembered something that had been nagging at the back of his mind all afternoon. _I've got to pick up a copy of Romeo and Juliet for my reading assignment!_ With that, he turned about, and started briskly jogging in the opposite direction. _Man, I hope the library is still open…!  
_

* * *

Kaoru let out a sigh of relief as he walked down the aisle. _Made it with minutes to spare…_

_Now, let's see… Fiction, Shakespeare…_ He glanced briefly at each book as he made his way down the shelf. _Nope…no, that's not it, either… Ah, there we go!_ He carefully pulled the book from the shelf, a satisfied expression settling on his face. He turned to walk to the check-out desk — and froze. A couple spots down from _Romeo and Juliet_, he spotted a book that looked very much out of place. It had no identifying label, no title on the spine…and it was _pink_. In fact, Kaoru realized, it looked like the _same shade of pink_ as the pendant he had just found. He pulled it out of his pocket and held it up next to the book, confirming his suspicion. _What in the world…?_

Putting the pendant back in his pocket and setting the copy of _Romeo and Juliet_ aside, he pulled the strange volume from the shelf and examined it closely. _I wonder what _this_ is doing over here, _he pondered. _Looks like, I don't know, some kind of kid's book… _Indeed, it did: the entirety of the book was pink, with ornate figures of the sun, moon, and a star with wings on the cover… And then he paused, as something occurred to him. He pulled the pendant back out of his pocket, and looked at it closely. _A star with wings…_ He looked back at the book. _It looks exactly the same!_ He massaged his temples for a few seconds; he was seriously getting weirded-out by this whole thing. He turned the book over, and noticed two things: an embossed ribbon across the top of the cover bearing the name "SAKURA", and a wing-shaped latch holding the book closed. He pondered leaving it alone and taking the book to the front desk to be put back where it belonged, but curiousity got the better of him. He carefully undid the latch, and opened the book.

What he saw confused him even further. The entire book was hollow, and inside were a stack of…pink…_cards?_ He tipped the book, letting one of the oversized pink cards fall into his hand. On the back was the same strange ornate star, sun, and moon figure from the cover of the book; on the front…

_The… Du—Da…Dash? The Dash? What IS this?_ He turned the card over a couple times as he thought. _Is this some weird kind of tarot card, or something?_ His attention was suddenly drawn back to the book — and what he saw caused his breath to catch in shock.

The rest of the cards in the book were glowing. He blinked, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but when he looked again they were still glowing, getting brighter by the second. _What on Earth is going on here?!_, was his unnerved thought. Without warning, there was a blinding flash from the inside of the book, and dozens of streamers of light shot straight up, vanishing through the ceiling. Kaoru, having dropped the book and stumbled backwards in a panic, slowly approached the strange tome where it had fallen.

It was empty.

He remembered the card he had taken out a few seconds before, having forgotten about it in the confusion. He held it up, looking ever more closely at it.

_A pendant, a book, and a card. Just what the heck are they, really?_ He caught a glimpse of his watch as he held up the card — it was nearly seven._ Oh, great…on top of everything else, now I'm going to be late for dinner!_ Picking up the copy of _Romeo and Juliet_ and — somewhat reluctantly — the now-empty pink book, he made his way to the checkout desk.

* * *

_Author's notes:_

_Well, now we have a proper introduction to the story. There have already been a couple of questions, one of which being when the story takes place. I didn't mention it at the time, but Sakura is 16 at the time the prologue takes place; this chapter takes place some time after (the exact timeline will be filled in as the story moves along._

_Kaoru Tanaka, Masaki Iwada, and any other "original" characters created for this story are just that - my creations. If you want to use them in your story, for some strange reason, just ask; I most likely won't mind. All other characters are the properties of their original creators (CLAMP). I don't own them, I just write about them._


	3. Chapter 2

"What a day…"

Kaoru kicked his sandals off and simply collapsed backward onto his bed, contemplating the events of the day. It had been a strange one indeed — far and away the strangest he had ever experienced.

_Maybe I was imagining it all,_ he pondered. _Maybe I've been under too much stress lately. Moving, new school, and all that… _He shook his head vigorously, as if hoping that he would suddenly come to his senses and everything would be right, be _normal_ again. Sitting upright, he glanced toward the desk in the corner of his room, and saw — precisely where he had set them, before dinner — the pendant, book, and card.

_What _are_ they?_ What was it that he had seen, when he opened that book in the library? _Could someone have been playing some sort of prank on me? Was it meant for someone else?_ His mind grasped for a logical explanation. _It had to have been some sort of trick. Things like this just don't happen in the real world. It just doesn't make sense. There aren't really any magical cards that vanish when you open a book…_

_And yet_, another part of his mind countered, _there is an empty book on that desk, with the last of those cards sitting right beside it._ Massaging his temples as he mentally struggled to devise some explanation, Kaoru stood and crossed to the desk, to once again examine the trio of objects. _A pendant…a book…and a card._ He reached for the card as if to pick it up, but hesitated, as if he expected it to somehow come alive in his hand. His curiosity soon got the better of him, however, as he carefully took it from the desk and held it up, looking closely at the front side. It depicted a strange looking creature, perhaps some variety of fox, in a pose that suggested it was running. And the name at the bottom — "THE DASH", it read — seemed to reinforce that suggestion, if his limited English vocabulary served him right. He turned it over, gazing on the ornate diagram on the back. _The moon, the sun, lots of stars… It almost looks like a magic circle right out of some anime._ He set it back on the desk and turned to the book. It bore many of the same symbols as the card — particularly the sun, moon, and stars — as well as the name Sakura, embossed in gold on the front cover.

Lastly, he turned his attention to the pendant. Again, the gold star, mounted within the 'handle' of a pink-colored key with a pair of tiny white wings attached to either side, hanging from a mid-length chain. The more he looked at it, the more it seemed like just a little girl's charm necklace…except for that star.

_There's a star on the pendant, and lots of stars on the card and the book. They're all pink. _He still cringed at that particular detail. Not for the first time, he asked himself: _just what ARE_ _they?_

A long yawn cut his train of thought short. He looked at the alarm clock on his desk; it was already quarter to ten.

_Well, nothing's likely to happen if I just keep staring at these things all night…_ Yawning again, he decided that the best option was probably to sleep on it for tonight, and worry about it after school tomorrow. With that, he stood, and started dressing for bed.

* * *

As he lay on his back, staring at the ceiling, Kaoru found himself quite unable to fall asleep. Whether it was due to the day's strangeness or simple sleeplessness, he was unsure (though he suspected the former), but he was starting to feel annoyed at himself. _Tomorrow is likely to be a long day as it is, even without going through it half-asleep…_ He turned to lay on his side, gazing toward the window…

…and found that there was someone gazing right back at him.

He froze, not daring to move, even to breathe. He resisted the urge to shout, "Who's there!" — perhaps it was merely another illusion, his tired eyes playing tricks on him again.

But when the window opened of its own accord, and a tiny figure silently glided into his room, he began to realize that, just perhaps, this was no mere figment of his imagination. Figuring that the thing probably already knew he was there, Kaoru slowly sat upright, reached for the bedside light, and turned it on.

Sitting cross-legged on the desk next to the day's finds was probably the last thing Kaoru had expected to see there: a small plush animal, a tawny brown in color, with beady black eyes, a pair of tiny white wings on its back, and a long, thin tail with a bushy white puffball at the tip. It sat there motionlessly, its gaze fixed on Kaoru as if waiting for him to make the first move.

Kaoru opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it again, unable to think of what to say first. Finally, he posed a simple question to the strange apparition: "Who — or _what_ — are you?"

The plush toy adopted a thoughtful expression, causing Kaoru to catch his breath with surprise — _it really_can_ move!_ "Hmm…where to begin," it spoke in a clear, high-pitched voice.

_It can talk, too!_

* * *

"I'm Kerberos, the Beast of the Seal. I was created a long time ago by a powerful magician named Clow Reed, to be the guardian of his creations, the Clow Cards — vessels of magical power that possess many different abilities. Each Card is unique — they have their own personality, their own power, and a distinct physical form. Clow created them for various purposes…some for battle, some for pleasure, and some for no logical reason whatsoever…but I digress." The toy — _Kerberos_, Kaoru mentally corrected himself — somehow caused the card on the desk to float in the air beside it. "Before he passed on, Clow left the Cards in the care of myself and Yue, the Judge, until another would come along to become our next master.

"For many years we waited for the one Clow predicted. Meanwhile, the Cards were sealed away in the book you have right here. Eventually, someone came along, found the book, and opened it… and the seal on the Cards within was broken, and they were scattered.

"The one who found the book was named Sakura, and it was she who I realized was the one Clow had foreseen, the one who would become the next master of the Cards. I made myself known to her and appointed her the Cardcaptor: the one destined to recapture the scattered Cards and to become their new master. Over the course of the next year, she sought out and recovered the Cards, facing challenges and even great danger in her task. Ultimately, she prevailed, and became master of the Cards.

"Because the Cards were created using Clow's power, after he passed, the Cards slowly began to lose their power — because Clow was no longer around, the power that allowed them to exist slowly faded. Because Sakura cared so much for the Cards, she realized that in order to keep them from fading away completely, she had to recreate them all using her own magical power. What you see here," he said, indicating the card hovering beside him, "is a Sakura Card, which she created using her own power." Kerberos' expression fell.

"Six months ago, Sakura, myself, and Yue encountered a powerful being who appeared out of nowhere. It attacked Sakura, and while we fought back, none of our powers had any effect on it. It managed to ambush Sakura, and she vanished into darkness." Kerberos fell silent for some seconds.

Kaoru was bewildered by the story he was being told. It seemed entirely too ridiculous to be believable…and yet, something suddenly occurred to him. There _had_ been a disappearance from Tomoeda right around six months ago…and if he remembered correctly, it had been a girl from the high school he was now attending. He wasn't entirely sure, but the girl's name might indeed have been Sakura…

"When she disappeared," Kerberos continued, "Yue and I were cut off completely from Sakura's power. The Cards were once again sealed within the book, and I was left with the tasks of looking for Sakura, and watching over the Cards once again." He paused, looking directly at Kaoru. "And that brings us to the present.

"The book you found in the library is the book in which the Cards were sealed. When you opened the book, the seal was broken. The Cards, awakened from their slumber, scattered to the winds in search of their master." He paused again, as if choosing his words carefully. "As the one who found the book and the key, it therefore falls to _you_ to find the Cards, recapture them, and… and hopefully…" Another pause. "…And hopefully, to find Sakura." With that, Kerberos looked at Kaoru with an expectant look on his tiny, round face.

For some moments, Kaoru was at a complete loss for words. _This is entirely, patently ridiculous!_ The dominant, logical side of Kaoru's mind was still insistent that some part of this was a joke that had gotten completely out of hand, that there was still some reasonable explanation for what he was seeing. _I'm just a normal high school student. There's absolutely nothing special about me, no magical powers, nothing! This sort of thing only happens on TV, not in real life…_

And yet against all reason, when he looked up again, the self-proclaimed Beast of the Seal sat patiently atop his desk, the pink card floating in the air beside it, waiting for his response.

Drawing a deep breath, Kaoru finally spoke. "Do I have any say in this? Why do _I_ have to get them all back?"

"Because the book would only appear to the one best suited for the task," came the reply. "You would not have been able to see it if you were not uniquely qualified. Nor would you have been able to find the key," Kerberos said, levitating the pendant into the air towards him. "This is the key to both sealing and using the power of the Cards. It too would only reveal itself to the one deemed worthy of using it." The key floated lazily through the air, until it hovered about a foot from Kaoru's face. He reached toward it slowly, unsure of what would happen if he touched it. Gingerly, he tapped it with a finger; when nothing happened, he took hold of it and held it in his cupped hands. He looked up at Kerberos with a quizzical expression.

"And what am I supposed to do with this 'key'?"

The creature simply smiled and said, "just wait and see!"

"Eh?"

"_Key of the Stars…"_ Kerberos began. Kaoru cocked his head to the side, perplexed…then jumped, startled, as the mysterious circular diagram had suddenly appeared on the floor beneath his feet, glowing a bright golden yellow in the dim light. _What the…!_

"_Here is one wishing for a contract with you. A boy, named…umm…_" With a sheepish look on its face, the diminutive Beast of the Seal looked up. "Just what _is_ your name?"

"K…Kaoru. Kaoru Tanaka."

"Kaoru, got it. _Ahem._" Resuming its look of concentration, it continued. "_A boy, named Kaoru. O Key, grant him your power! RELEASE!"_

The key suddenly jumped out of Kaoru's hands and into the air before him, glowing with a bright golden aura. Before his eyes, it _transformed_ — elongating into a sort of makeshift staff, bearing the same encircled, winged golden star at the head. Bewildered, Kaoru could do naught but look across the room at Kerberos, who had assumed a dramatic pose. "Now, take the staff!"

Too bewildered to do anything but obey, he gingerly grasped the handle of the staff. Instantly, a bright flash lit the entire

"And, _DONE!_" Kerberos punched the air enthusiastically. "Once again, a Cardcaptor is on the job!"

"Wha…" Kaoru was now thoroughly, utterly confused. "Card…captor? Huh?" His logical mind was taking a metaphorical beating from being inundated with these strange, impossible events. Slowly, though, something Kerberos had said began to dawn on him. "Wait…what was that about being 'on the job'? What did you just do?"

"Well, I thought that I made it pretty obvious. You opened the book and allowed the Cards to scatter…so, naturally, it now falls to you to get them back — with my invaluable assistance, of course." Kerberos floated over to him and held out a paw. "I'm looking forward to working with you, Cardcaptor Kaoru!"

Feeling utterly ridiculous holding the shiny pink staff and talking to a flying stuffed toy, Kaoru grudgingly shook said toy's paw. Despite the lingering hope that this was all just a stress-induced dream (or maybe a nightmare), he had a feeling that his life had just become much, much more difficult.

* * *

_Authors notes: Holy mother of mayhem, this chapter took a while. Having surgery to repair a hernia and being confined to bed for an entire week, to say nothing of floating around somewhere off the East Coast might have had something to do with it. In any case, it's_ up._ I'm sure you all know the drill by now - read, review, critique, point out obvious inaccuracies (since I wrote this in the middle of the night, there's bound to be a few), and generally let me know if you like it!_


End file.
